Mobility In Jane Eyre Research Paper
Jane Eyre and Upward Mobility of Women
Jane Eyre was written based on Victorian society. The following thesis will focus on the topic of marriage, social and economic standings, and upward mobility during a time of socially suppressed women. The position of women is seen in Jane Eyre is shown accurately when she deals with her struggles in Victorian society.
As a woman during her time, Jane must live up to strict expectations of society. Women were seen as inferior to men during this time and only through marriage did they hope to gain power and upward mobility. Typically, upper class women in the Victorian Era were married to men in their own social class to ensure wealth and status. When Jane becomes a governess, she endured a more rigid part of upper class society’s expectations than when she was in the lower class at Lowood. Through social norms, she is inferior …show more content…
Jane miscomprehends the relationship between the both of them and further draws out the expectation of upper class marrying others who are in the same socio-economic standing. She compares her own relationship with Rochester and Blanche’s relationship to him as well:
“The longer I considered the position, education, &c., of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood. All their class held these principles; I supposed, then, they had reasons for holding them, such as I could not fathom.” (Brontë, 160) Jane at this point agrees that these “ideas and principles” are dependent on social rank, how they were brought up, and what gender they are. Her thoughts about the classes become both clear and unclear and are able to have a tolerance for conforming to women in the nineteenth century while at the same time, showing her own integrity. (Dupras,
Jane Eyre was written based on Victorian society. The following thesis will focus on the topic of marriage, social and economic standings, and upward mobility during a time of socially suppressed women. The position of women is seen in Jane Eyre is shown accurately when she deals with her struggles in Victorian society.
As a woman during her time, Jane must live up to strict expectations of society. Women were seen as inferior to men during this time and only through marriage did they hope to gain power and upward mobility. Typically, upper class women in the Victorian Era were married to men in their own social class to ensure wealth and status. When Jane becomes a governess, she endured a more rigid part of upper class society’s expectations than when she was in the lower class at Lowood. Through social norms, she is inferior …show more content…
Jane miscomprehends the relationship between the both of them and further draws out the expectation of upper class marrying others who are in the same socio-economic standing. She compares her own relationship with Rochester and Blanche’s relationship to him as well:
“The longer I considered the position, education, &c., of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood. All their class held these principles; I supposed, then, they had reasons for holding them, such as I could not fathom.” (Brontë, 160) Jane at this point agrees that these “ideas and principles” are dependent on social rank, how they were brought up, and what gender they are. Her thoughts about the classes become both clear and unclear and are able to have a tolerance for conforming to women in the nineteenth century while at the same time, showing her own integrity. (Dupras,